Return of the Runebound Professor

“What, this?” Noah asked, glancing at the scroll. “Just a few Imbued Runes I’m lugging around. Testing some stuff out. Why?”

“It was putting off a good amount of Runic Force,” Janice replied, a flicker of interest flashing in her eyes – just like it always did whenever Noah got her speaking about Runes. “Rank 4 Runes at least. With that energy, maybe even a Rank 5 unless you have a whole lot of Rank 4 ones in there. I just wanted to check if you knew what you had.”

Just how much power is it putting off? You know what – I bet Dayton kept the scroll in his desk because it probably had some Imbuement that blocked people from sensing it easily. I can’t feel anything at all, so I guess it’s something that comes at or above Rank 3. Either way, this isn’t good. Is Evergreen going to be able to notice if I’m lugging this around?

“Yup, well aware,” Noah replied casually. “Nothing all that interesting, to be honest. I didn’t realize it was leaking energy. How bad is it?”

“Not that bad. I didn’t notice until you came downstairs,” Janice replied, eyeing the scroll as if she was trying to strip it apart with her eyes. “What kind of Runes are in it?”

“Just this and that. Nothing that Father wouldn’t have.”

Won’t have.

Janice blinked at the mention of Father’s name. She cleared her throat and shook her head. “Ah, yes. Of course. My apologies. I get a little too distracted when the subject of Runes comes up sometimes. I should get home.”

She gave them a slight bow, then scurried out the door, closing it behind her. Noah and Lee exchanged a glance.

“Tell me about it,” Noah muttered. He hefted the scroll. “I might need to do something about this. Is there a way to limit the Runic Force coming off an Imbued object? I’d rather not be strolling around with a beacon.”

“I have no idea,” Lee replied. “I never Imbued anything that wasn’t my own body. I know how, but never really did that much of it. Anything you don’t have as part of you in the Damned Plains is liable to get taken – and, to be honest, even things that are actually part of you are free reign if anyone is strong enough to take it.”

Noah winced. The more Lee spoke about the Damned Plains, the more he understood why she had wanted to escape. He sighed and started up the stairs to his room. Lee trailed behind him, and he shut the door behind them once they arrived. Tossing the scroll onto the bed, Noah unfurled it once more.

“Well, I’ve got absolutely no idea how to keep people from noticing this, but according to Janice, it should be fine if it’s not too close to anyone. Were you able to sense anything off about it?”

Lee shook her head. “No. Just looked like a scroll.”

“Then it’s at least a Rank 4 ability or some special Rune. Do you think Janice is Rank 4?”

“I suppose it’s possible. It’s pretty hard to tell how strong someone is when they’re containing their Runic Force. The really powerful archdemons couldn’t contain it and it felt like you were getting crushed just by standing next to them, but anyone around Rank 4 or 5 was indistinguishable when they weren’t trying to show off.”

“Noted,” Noah said, looking back down at the scroll. “Then I have to assume that there’s a good chance Father would be able to sense the scroll as well. I need to work pretty quickly if I want to get away with anything before Janice reports it to him.”

“You think she knows what it is?”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that hard of a guess,” Noah said, scanning over the runes. When Sunder had given him a vision, he’d seen it cut the Runes straight out of a monster. Unfortunately, the monster hadn’t survived the experience. If he used Sunder on the scroll, he was pretty sure it would end up cut to bits.

There was no way to absorb a Rank 3 Rune himself, and Lee needed expensive Catchpaper to Imbue the Rune. That meant he basically had no way to get the Rank 3 and 4 Runes off the grimoire in the near future.

I think the strategy is to focus on getting all the Rank 2 and 3 Runes now, then have Father give me the higher Rank Runes as my portion of the grimoire when it’s time to split it up. Also…

“This isn’t really Dayton’s,” Noah said, tapping the green part of the scroll. “He stole this. Thus, it isn’t part of our agreement.”

He hooked a finger into one of the bindings and sliced it with a thin blade of wind. Going down the scroll, Noah cut the rest of the strips connecting the scroll together, freeing the small green section at the end.

It only contained half a dozen Runes, but Noah couldn’t tell what Rank they were by sight. Luckily, he had an equally effective test method.

“You said Rank 3 Runes can sometimes just be two words, right?” Noah asked, brushing his hands across the first Rune – Bleeding Forest. His fingers tingled and he grimaced, pulling his hand back.

Lee nodded. “Yeah. That’s a nasty looking Rune.”

“Tell me about it,” Noah agreed. “And at least a Rank 3. Can you check it?”

Lee touched the Rune. “Seems fine to me. I think it’s a Rank 3.”

“Noted,” Noah said. He turned his gaze to the next of the Runes. “Help me figure out what the rest of these are, then?”

Lee nodded once more, and they went through the other five Runes. It only took a minute, and when they were done, Noah had a list of the Runes he’d technically indirectly stolen from Evergreen.

Noah snagged a piece of paper and a quill from his desk, jotting everything down for his own records.

Bleeding Forest – Rank 3

Thorned Vine Swarm – Rank 3

Earthen Cataclysm – Rank 2

Preserving Stone Forest – Rank 3

True Water – Rank 3

Nourishing Water – Rank 2

“These sound pretty fancy,” Noah said, tapping a finger on his chin. “She’s got to be pretty pissed they’re missing. Even if she can’t use these herself, I bet Evergreen would have wanted to give these to younger members of her family. If she’s already combined them, then it’s possible that they don’t have any more.”

“Thinking about giving it back?” Lee asked.

Noah snorted. “Absolutely not. You don’t get stronger by avoiding opportunities that fall into your hands. And, to be honest, the chances of someone from the Torrin family just deciding a Linwick delivering her a gift of her stolen runes isn’t a ploy is probably zero. No, I’ll figure out what to do with these myself.”

His eyes were still caught on the Earthen Cataclysm Rune. He’d been meaning to get his hands on an earth based Rune. Cataclysm made him think of earthquakes, which wasn’t all that far off from Vibration. He didn’t know for sure. But, luckily, Noah had the perfect way to find out.

“There’s no way for Evergreen to know I’m using this, is there?” Noah asked, pausing before he put his hand on the Earthen Cataclysm Rune.”

“Catchpaper only holds Runes. You can’t actually Imbue it to do anything. That’s why the covers of your grimoire are imbued rather than the Catchpaper itself. So, no. She shouldn’t be able to tell what happens to the Rune right now. There are ways to figure out what Runes you’ve got when you use them, though. If you’re walking around with one of them, she might figure it out.”

Not if I’ve Sundered the original Rune.

“Perfect,” Noah said with a grin. He studied the Rune for a moment longer, memorizing it, before placing his hand on the book and closing his eyes. Noah let himself slip into his mindspace, where Pyroclastic Resonance and a lone Rank 1 Greater Wind Rune floated.

He turned his attention to an empty space in the darkness and started to draw Earthern Cataclysm. The Rune was composed of large, sweeping lines connected with short, jagged symbols.

Drawing a Rank 2 Rune that he wasn’t familiar with was harder than Noah had expected. It took him half a dozen tries to get it right. But, as he stepped back after the last try, inspecting the Rune, he felt energy course into his body. It lit a dull brown, and Noah felt his soul shift as the new Rune started to press on it. The Rune

It wasn’t quite as much as when he’d combined his runes into Pyroclastic Resonance, though. Noah frowned slightly, inspecting the Rune. It was about fifteen percent full, so while it was a very well formed Rune, it wasn’t quite perfect. The pressure coming off the Rune wasn’t much less than what had come off his Pyroclastic Resonance Rune when he’d first formed it, so it would almost certainly split into seven whole Rank 1 Runes instead of losing energy and fading away.

Is it because it isn’t as linked with me as the other Rune was? I filled all those Runes myself, while this one is from somebody else. Or is it because I didn’t combine it with my own soul? Well, if it’s the latter…

Noah opened his eyes. He flipped his Grimoire open and pressed his hand to it, Imbuing the entirety of his Greater Wind Rune on its pages. Then Noah closed his eyes once more and drew Sunder’s power as his mindspace formed around him once more.

He stepped toward the Rune and extended a finger, releasing the Master Rune’s energy into Earthen Cataclysm. Noah had gotten better at drawing on its power quickly, though it still took him a few seconds to gather it.

A black line arced through Earthen Cataclysm. The Rune shuddered, shattering into swirling energy. Seven Rank 1 Runes bloomed within the light, floating out before Noah.

There were four Earth Runes and three Vibration Runes. The last time Noah had Sundered a whole Rune, he’d moved as fast as he could. This time, he took a few moments to allow the Runes to settle in his mindspace. They floated out, six of them settling down in a ring around him. One of the newly formed Rank 1 Earth Runes stayed within the darkness, floating at the edge of his soul.

Lee did mention I can only access seven Runes at a time. It’s still there, but I just can’t seem to feel it. Makes sense, I guess. All I need is to be able to combine it, so it’s fine if I can’t directly access it.

Based off the energy coming off all the Rank 1 Runes, Noah could tell that they were all Greater Runes.

Well, I suppose that’s what one should expect from someone that had Dayton this scared. This Rune isn’t bad at all. I guess I’m not the only one that thought shaking the earth was cool. Now, let’s test if combining the Rune myself really makes much of a difference or not.

Noah gathered his focus and drew the seven Runes back together. He already had an idea of what he wanted, but his vision of the Rune was likely not quite what Evergreen had initially pictured. Cataclysm sounded like a Rune that would affect large areas, while he was much more interested in focused, small area control.

Something similar to what I was doing with my Vibration Runes, but with a more fine control. I want some damn percussion.

Energy swirled around Noah’s mindspace, rushing to flood into the seven Runes as they started to merge. His hands trembled and pressure started to emanate from within the glowing light.

Then, with a pop, everything snapped together. A deep brown rune emerged and the glow faded away, leaving Noah staring at the new Rank 2 Rune he’d just formed.

Focal Quake.

Huh. I completely changed the Rune’s name. Intention really does modify how a Rune combines.

Noah walked in a circle around the rune. To his delight, it was only ten percent full. Another perfect Rune.

A large part of it is because her Rune was already almost perfect, I bet. Since my intent was really clear and I’ve got a lot of experience working with Vibration already, it came together pretty easily.

Noah let his eyes open, unable to hide the smug grin on his face as he looked back up at Lee, who was watching him curiously.

“Did it work?” Lee asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got a new Rank 2 Rune, and I think it’ll fit me really well. I’m excited to test it,” Noah replied, placing his hand on his grimoire and taking a moment to pull the Greater Wind Rune back into his mind.

He looked down at Evergreen’s Catchpaper – it was still mostly intact, aside from a small corner that Sunder had carved off when he’d cut away Earthen Cataclysm. A slow grin stretched across his face and he tapped the paper. “This stuff is pretty high quality, isn’t it? It’s already holding Rank 3 and 4 Runes. Now that there’s more space, how do you feel about transferring one of Dayton’s Runes to this?”

Lee matched Noah’s grin. “I think I can do that.”

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